


Time Marches On

by imkerfuffled



Category: Agent Carter (TV), Captain America (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Ambiguous Relationships, Canonical Character Death, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-30
Updated: 2015-07-30
Packaged: 2018-04-12 01:41:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4460423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imkerfuffled/pseuds/imkerfuffled
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Every year on the anniversary of Steve's death, Peggy and Howard get together and drink through the night...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Time Marches On

**Author's Note:**

> I literally wrote this in an hour at four am, so lets see how it looks in the morning eh

Every year on the anniversary of Steve's death, Peggy and Howard get together and drink through the night, just talking about Steve and their time in the war. Sometimes the Howling Commandos are there too, but most of the time they can't make it. After a certain number of drinks, Howard always suggests starting up the search again, and Peggy always shoots him down, because by that time she doesn't see the point in it. A few drinks later, and Jarvis knows to bring out the extra blankets to drape over them, since they always manage to fall asleep by the fire just as the sun first pokes up its head.

Years pass. Gradually these get-togethers become less like wakes and more like nostalgic reminiscings. They laugh more often, and any tears shed tend to be happier as they propose toast after drunken toast to Steve's memory. Depending on how late into the night they start, it usually devolves into fits of giggles and slurred toasts to various of Steve's body parts.

One year, they stay up till well pest dawn trying to turn 'shield' into an acronym.

The year Tony is born, Howard passes out on the couch before the first drop of alcohol even reaches his lips, and Peggy and Jarvis have to carry him to bed, careful not to wake Maria or the baby, who are already (miraculously, in Tony's case) fast asleep.

When Tony gets old enough, the three of them spend the night in Howard's basement looking through old photographs and newsreels, and the two adults tell Tony all the stories they can remember, always with those sad smiles on their faces. Tony isn't sure then why his father and Aunt Peggy start crying in the middle of it, but even he knows, whatever the reason, it isn't anything he can help with.

As more years go by, and Tony grows older, he begins to resent the date. Not because of Captain America's death, but because of what it represents in the relationship between Tony and his father.

Eventually, Peggy and Howard spend more time discussing whatever is presently going on in their lives than they do reminiscing over Steve. One year, it's the crisis in Cuba. Another year, it's Janet Van Dynne's death and her husband's subsequent leaving.

One year, the last year the two of them will spend together, Howard stays very quiet for most of the night, until toward the end he says, with a haunted look in his eyes, “Peggy, I think there's something wrong in SHIELD." That year, Howard and Maria Stark are killed in a car crash, and mere weeks later Peggy starts showing the first signs of memory loss.

In time, Peggy forgets the date. It passes by once, twice, three times without any more recognition than a vague sense that she's forgotten something important. Then on the fourth year, a man walks into her hospital room holding flowers. He smiles softly, though his eyes hold back immeasurable pain. She smiles softly back and says, “You're about seventy years late for that dance, Rogers."

That is the last anniversary of Steve's death that Peggy Carter will live to see.


End file.
